Bird of Paradise Tassel Earrings

Like floating feathers, these tassel earrings will alight above your shoulders. The sparkling, hand-painted fibers make these pretty additions to your wardrobe.

Designer Cynthia Deis
Finished length 4.5 inches/11.5 cm

Ingredients

- 100 inches/254 cm  assorted hand-painted fibers (we used Shimmer and Rayon Gimp)
- 2 bell caps with loop, 8 mm
- 1 pair simple ear loops
- 2 Elaine Ray ceramic Square beads
- 2 inches/5 cm craft wire, 20g
- 527 glue

Tools

- chain nose pliers
- wire cutters
- Scissors
- Toothpick
- cardboard scrap, cut to 3.25 inch/8.25 cm width for winding tassel threads

1.Wrap fibers around the cardboard 20-30 times to create a grouping that will fit into the bell cap. Remember how many times you wrap around! Carefully remove fibers from cardboard, gathering bundle in your fingers.

2.Using your scissors trim the ends off the fibers to create a smooth surface. This helps the glue to adhere to all the fibers in the bundle.  Place a small amount of glue on the ends of the bundle, pressing the tip of the glue down into the middle of the bundle to make sure the fibers are completely coated. Fit the bundle into a bell cap. Use the toothpick to make sure the fibers are completely within the bell cap. Set aside to dry 24 hours. Repeat steps 1-2 to make the second tassel.

3. Use the 20 gauge wire to loop the Square beads and attach the tassels to the ear wires.

Click here for a printable version of this tutorial